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Manuscripts

King Johan : [manuscript]

1 of 70
Description
ff. 1-35; f. 35v blank. [John Bale] King Johan. Incipit: To declare the powres, & their force to enlarge/ the scriptur of god, doth flow In most abowndaunce. Explicit: Also to preserue hir most honourable counsell/ To the prayse of God, and glorye of the Gospell. Thus endeth the ii playes of kynge Iohan. English. Revisions and 2 added leaves (ff. 12, 14) in the first part (ff. 1-22), and all of the second part (ff. 23-35) in the author's hand. J. Payne Collier, ed., Kynge Johan: a Play in Two Parts by John Bale. Camden Society 2 (London 1838), the first edition, from this unique manuscript. J. M. Manly, ed., Specimens of the Pre-Shaksperean Drama (Boston 1897) 1:523-618 from Collier's edition. W. Bang, ed., Bales Kynge Johan nach der Handschrift in der Chatsworth Collection. Materialen zur Kunde des älteren englischen Dramas 25 (Louvain 1909) in facsimile with reference to verse numbers in Manly's edition. J. H. P. Pafford, ed., with assistance of W. W. Greg, King Johan by John Bale. Malone Society (Oxford 1931) in type-facsimile with plates of portions of ff. 1, 6, 23v, 32. B. B. Adams, ed., John Bale's King Johan (San Marino 1969). P. Happé, ed., The Complete Plays of John Bale (Cambridge, 1985-86).
Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Date
[between 1540 and 1560]
Call number
mssHM 3
Creator
Bale, John (1495-1563)(Opens in new tab)
Provenance
Discovered sometime between 1831-38 from among some old papers, probably once belonging to the Corporation of Ipswich (Collier, ed., p. vi) and transferred to the collection of the Duke of Devonshire, through the agency of Collier himself. Two leaves, ff. 21-22, were missing from the manuscript at that time and were only reunited with the rest in 1847; they had been found stitched in the copy of Collier's 1838 edition owned by a Mr. William Stevenson Fitch of Ipswich; through a friend of Mr. Fitch, one Mr. Pulman, they were acquired by Collier for the Duke of Devonshire; listed in the typescript Alphabetical Handlist of the Titles of the Kemble-Devonshire Collection of English Plays, compiled 1906-07, vol. 1, p. 292. The Duke of Devonshire collection of plays acquired by Henry E. Huntington in January 1914, through Sotheby's and G. D. Smith.
Restrictions
RESTRICTED. Available with curatorial approval. Requires extended retrieval and delivery time.
Dimensions
211 x 310 mm
Associated people
Bale, John, (1495-1563,)
Associated organization
Henry E. Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.
Find out more
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    mssHM 115

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    mssHM 131

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